Yesterday we picked up our Azure Standard order from our Drop Point in Rickreall.  It was a more unusual order for us. We desperately needed blueberries and I could not find organic or spray free blueberries for a reasonable price for the life of me.  We had gone through our stash of frozen blueberries that we picked from Minto Island Growers quite a while back and we were missing them.

These berries from Azure were the best deal I could find (the picture only shows 5 of the 10 pounds)…and I still almost choked at the price.  I am also lso finding that most fruit prices are at an all time high this time of year for things like apples and pears.  Although this may seem pretty obvious based on the fact that we are only getting farther away from apple season, it has still taken me by surprise.  In season I can get organic apples for close to a dollar, and then they increase steadily.  This time of year it seems that my target price is more like $1.50 or less per pound for pears and apples.  Now that we are going through a larger amount of produce, I am totally feeling this in our grocery bill.  I even bought organic mangos the other day because they were not much more than the cheapest apples.  Can’t wait for more fruit to be coming into season. Alright, enough about fruit prices. Sorry.

Why did we buy this stuff?

The steel cut oats are our favorite cheap healthy breakfast. We brown them in a bit of butter and then soak them overnight.  The next morning we cook them up and add fun toppings.  Maybe I can post more about this later.

The Pau d’ Arco bark is for hubs.  A helpful lady at Life Source recommended it when I had a question about his skin issues and supplements for him. We will use it to make a tea. Mmmm. Tastes like tree.

The Chia Seeds are something Hubs wanted to add to our cooking. This will primarily be added to things he eats before he goes for runs/races.

The Gamma Seal Lids are to go on top of 5 gallon buckets and create a good seal, but are also easy to open.  We will use them for our bulk wheat berries, different oats, and maybe beans.  They are speedy, but we will use them on food safe buckets we are hoping to get for free. This will ensure that our bulk purchases are safe from getting bugs etc.

If you are curious about how to get started with Azure Standard, you can check out this post.  Also, you can search “Azure Standard” on my blog in the upper right corner for more related posts.

-Not paid for this endorsement, just a happy customer.

Lately I have become a little bit obsessed with Grocery Outlet. Last night I made a last minute trip to the Salem Grocery Outlet (on D St) to try to get more of a few things I found on a recent trip.  I even found a few great markdowns (yes, even Grocery Outlet has markdowns!).  I got all of this for $45.00!  With the exception of the cheese and Kettle chips, everything was organic! I bought a few things we don’t normally buy, but they will be nice occasional treats for the kids.  If you don’t eat organic you will find that some things are even cheaper than what I purchased.

Here is a rough price list from memory.

Organic yellow and red potatoes-Marked down to 99 cents from $1.99

Big tub of organic salad mix- Marked down to $2.49 from $4.99

Kettle chips -$1.99

Athenos feta spread- Marked down to 87 cents

Dill havarti-$1.49

Organic chicken wings -$1.99 per pound and one was 50 cents off

Annies organic chocolate chip granola bars 7ct-$1.99 (6 grams of sugar per bar…not too bad)

Solana Gold organic apple sauce (apple boysenberry and apple strawberry)- $1.99 (On sale at Life Source for $3.99 I believe, and Azure last month for $3)

Country Choice organic sandwich cookies-$1.50 ($3.99 at Fred Meyer)

Annies Bunnies cheddar crackers- 25 cents a piece

Only bummer was when they would not allow me to use a Grocery Outlet coupon they emailed.  We were out of a printer for a couple weeks and Hubby hooked it up hours before my trip to the store. As I was getting into the car I saw that it expired 2 days prior. I never try to use expired coupons, but thought that since it was a store coupon for new email subscribers that they might still be able to honor it easily.  No dice.

Do you ever shop at Grocery Outlet? Their stock changes often some products are a one time thing.

I feel a bit better now that I let the cat out of the bag.  Now don’t you go clearin’ shelves on me.

-Grocery Outlet has no idea who I am.  I am just a fan of good cheap food.

It is nearing the time when I should start thinking about Summer clothes for the children.  In Oregon we will generally not have to bust the tanks and shorts out for a bit, but the time to get these items on sale is now. By the time our weather gets warm these items will likely be just getting marked down. Often the first markdown is still higher than these baby sale prices.

The “Kids and Baby Sale” started yesterday (Monday) and is one of my favorite sales that Old Navy rotates through.  I headed out solo to the Keizer Station store after dinner (as I prefer not dragging my little ones through the “gauntlet of temptation” check out line very often).

Here are some shots of some of their best deals. Most of these are in the toddler areas…since by Old Navy’s standards I have three toddlers.  And yes, I am doing this post during their nap time.

Toddler girl tanks and knit shorts. $4

Toddler girl twill and denim shorts. $6-10

Toddler girl dresses. $8

Girls solid dresses $10

Toddler boys polos $6

Toddler boys short sleeve $5

Can you say ADORABLE?

If you want to see what else they have on sale you can head over here.

To compare prices I stopped into Target for a few minutes right after Old Navy.  Target did not have anything too interesting on sale this week and their basics were priced a bit higher than Old Navy’s baby sale items.  While I generally really like Target, I preferred most of Old Navy’s summer basics more this season.  I gravitate towards stripes, prints, and solids and most of what I was finding at Target (especially in the boys dept.) was pretty heavy on the graphics. Also, the Circo boys shorts were pretty poor fitting.

Tips for shopping at Old Navy

• If you do not see the sizes you need on a sale item and they do not have back stock, just buy the item and exchange it for the right size later.  You can call the store first to find out if the item is in and save yourself a trip.

• Don’t forget to participate in the surveys that sometimes print out at the end of your receipt.  10% off is always a fantastic bonus.

• If you are shopping online, you totally should use Ebates to get an easy percentage back. Right now Old Navy is giving you 2% back, but often certain stores offer double their normal percentage during different times of the year.  It is easy to sign up and you usually get a $10 gift card to popular stores too if you are new customer.  They automatically sent you your refund check a couple times a year.  (Lately we have used Ebates to get cash back from REI and Best Buy).

• Be sure to look for clearance items with the red mark down stickers throughout the entire store (not just in the traditional places you find clearance items).

Happy bargain hunting!

Do you sign up for freebies? Have you gotten anything good lately?

Last week the kids and I did a fun activity we have never tried before.  I saw something similar on the internet, and tried to turn it into a simple science experiment for the kids.

I spread out a layer of old baking soda onto a cookie sheet and then filled mini muffin tins with a small amount of white vinegar. I added food coloring to the vinegar and made a few different colors. One drop for red, blue, yellow and green, and a half of a drop (done by using a tooth pick) of each color I used when I was mixing colors. We put on some of the kids play shirts, and went at it. When the vinegar is dropped onto the baking soda with a dropper it sizzles and bubbles.

Later, I offered to give the kids a little pile of flour and had them make hypotheses about what would happen. Would it sizzle and fizz like the baking soda?

They absolutely loved it and spent almost an hour playing quietly.  I was having so much fun watching them that I did not realize how much video I had shot.  Instead of editing it too much, I just decided to put it all up (thank you to Hubs for all the help).  I am pretty sure most of you do not want to watch this much footage of the tots doing this activity, but I thought some other little ones would have fun watching along. I know my children LOVE to watch footage of other children doing anything.

Supplies:

• White vinegar
• Baking soda
• Food coloring
• Old medicine droppers
• Baking sheet
• Mini muffin tin or small bowls
• Flour or other things to experiment with

Happy Monday!

Part 1

Part 2

Cleaning up the mess together.

Yesterday was our Azure Standard delivery day at the drop point we use.  My friend and I take turns picking it up and it always feels a little like Christmas.  We always seem to stop at Burgerville, so it is good we don’t pick it up every time. We happened to be out of a lot of our bulk items, and I decided to get bigger 25lb bags of oats and beans this time. I also ordered more hard white and soft white wheat berries. I use the wheat berries in my grain mill to make fresh ground flour (it is healthier and makes homemade stuff taste even better).  Hard white is a good average whole wheat (not too dark), and soft white replaces white flour nicely in recipies for pie crusts, cakes, etc.

Here is a list of what I got. Notice that some items did not come.  That is one of the only things about Azure that is a bummer. Sometimes they are out of your stuff and you have to just order it again next time.  They do have a system now that tells you how many of the item is remaining at the time you add the item.  It still catches me by surprise because I often add items to my cart over time and don’t know they are running low on an item. This picture does not include our favorite steel cut oats.  We already cracked into them and forgot to put them in the picture.

My sweet helper always wants to pose with the groceries.  She probably thinks all moms line up and take pictures of their groceries. And yes, she does like to wear multiple dresses in the same day.  Usually I encourage her to keep the same outfit on, today I let her live it up. Love that girl.

After I refilled my jars I had to figure what to do with all the extras.  I wrote the dates on the bags so I can get an idea for how long it takes me to go through them.  I will also clip the corners shut with clamps and put them in plastic totes for the time being.  I hope to get them into well sealed 5 gallon buckets when we get our hands on some more.  I love the Gamma Seal lids on the two that I have.  Who knew I would get excited about fancy bucket lids?

Here is a post I wrote about getting started with Azure Standard. You can also find some of my past shopping trips by searching “azure” in the search box.

I am looking out on at least 5 inches of fresh snow and praying everyone is safe driving today. After all the snow we have gotten this year I am starting to feel like I live in an area where snow is a common occurrence.  Shout out to my dad and hubby for picking me and my van up late last night after I was having trouble just making it out of the neighborhood I was in.

Happy Spring!

Not sure why I picked today to make homemade laundry soap and natural hand soap (I will blog about that project soon). Sweet Baby has been sick and the last 4 nights have been some of the worst sleep in recent history.  I think I needed to feel like I was accomplishing something outside of soothing a sick baby. I also think the 5 swallows of leftover Starbucks coffee this normally non-coffee drinker had might have been to blame.

Ingredients

Half of a bar of Fels-Naptha

1 cup-Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (not baking soda)

1 cup-20 Mule Team Borax

2 gallons of water

Odds and Ends

Big pot OR small pot and bucket

Cheese grater

Big spoon for mixing

Funnel (if putting finished product in something with a small opening)

Old laundry soap containers, clean bucket with lid, jar, etc. Something that is shakeable would be easiest since this tends to separate.

Steps

1) Cut bar of Fels-Naptha in half and grate. You can put other half in a zipper bag for later. Looks an awful lot like cheese…keep kids out of it!

2) Melt Fels-Naptha in a pot with 6 cups of warm water. Use low-medium heat and stir almost constantly.

3) Remove from heat. Add 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of washing soda. Mix in and then add about 6 more cups of water. Mix again.

4) At this point you can poor laundry soap mixture into a big bucket if you have one and add remaining water totaling 2 gallons.  If you already used 12 cups total you can add 4 more cups (16 cups in a gallon), and then another gallon of water.  I used an old vinegar jug to measure my gallons and store some of my finished laundry soap.  However you do it just make sure to mix or shake in your remaining water so that it all gets mixed.

Here is a shot of the mixing and melting of the ingredients before adding more water.

Hubs helped me funnel it into the big jug (old 1.5 gallon Costco laundry soap bottle) while I chowed part of a sandwich and took pics.

Ta DA! Over 2 gallons of laundry soap for super cheap!

Here is a rough idea of the cost to get started. I spent about $9 on the 3 materials and only used a small fraction of the Borax and washing soda.  I have half of bar of Fels left to use next time and then I will need to buy more. It is only about $1.50 a bar.

I took a picture of the prices at the store on my camera and it is GONE.  Sweet Baby might have had something to do with that.  I saved the receipt, but the twins might have ripped it in half after carefully lifting it from the bag with their sweaty little toes. It is now on the floor in the back of the van.  How is that for blog sabotage?  When I care enough to dig it out of the van and do the math you will be the first to know.

I wanted to make an all natural batch, but could not find a recipe that got great reviews.  I heard that using the castile soap might cause your clothes to fade and did not work well for some people.  Let me know if you have found one you liked!

Now off to do some laundry and see how this stuff works! Thanks to my friend Vi for the sample of her batch and the encouragement to try it.

Have you ever made you own? Give it a try! It is super easy!

Anybody planning a wedding, working on a project, needing cosmetics, things for the home, gifts, shoes or clothes for the kids or yourself? I have some extra coupons I would love to share for anybody who is local and would like to come pick them up.  If I see you regularly I would be happy to bring them along (just keep in mind many of them expire pretty soon)!

Here is what I have:

Updated morning of 3/7

Ulta- $3.50 off any purchase of $10 or more. (Some exclusions including fancy makeup lines.) (8 available)

Michaels 40% off one regular price item. Good through March 10th. (8 available)

Craft Warehouse (this coupon is pretty rare) 40% off any one reg. price item. Good through March 12th. ) (5 available)

Cost Plus World Market take an additional 10% off your purchase. Good through March 11th. (10 available)

Fred Meyer scratch off coupons-extra mystery % off your purchase on apparel, shoes, and accessories for men, women, and children.  I have (5) 15% off coupons.

*Remember most stores will only let you use one coupon per shopping trip.

This is not a contest! Just leave a comment on THIS post letting me know what you would like and when to have them ready. 

Would you consider adding me as a Google Friend? It would make my day…and might increase the chances of more real giveaways around here.

Happy Tuesday!

Our dear friends the Comptons happened to be heading to Sunriver over the same weekend.  We seem to have a nack for taking vacations simultaneously.  Back in October we did the Disneyland thing and drove down together, and this weekend we did the same.  Although this trip was MUCH shorter in length and drive.  We met up at Starbucks with the Comptons at exactly the same time.  This may or may not have something to do with our husbands “aTEXTed” at the hip tendency…or Jocelyn and my slightly compulsive planning tendencies.  We rolled out and headed over the pass.  They were gems for sticking with us and Eric even helped Conrad chain up.  I asked Conrad if he packed any of those “manly work gloves.” He laughed at me and said he did not have any.  I fed the kids crackers and chatted with Jocelyn.  There are many times when I am glad I am a girl.  Chaining up in a snowy pass is one of those times.  Not much I could do except for offering the boys some diaper wipes for their (glove-less) hands after they completed the task.  For the record it took them 18 minutes to put them on and 5 minutes to get them off a few miles down the road.  I am pretty sure the guy in front of us was trying to race to see who was fasted when they were unchaining.  Love competitive boys.

Which also reminds me of the drive down to Disneyland.  They might have left at 4 something and we might have left a couple hours after that (because I need sleep to be sane). We also might have caught up to them later in the day.

Look at this sweet boy! Can you resist those eyes?

A shot Jocelyn grabbed of 2 out of our 3 Littles in our swagger wagon during the big chain up.

This is why we chained up.

This is false advertising.  Hubs can’t get enough of apps that jazz up the pictures.

For lunch we stopped in Sisters at Three Creeks Brewing Company. Table for ten please! Four adults, four kids, and two babies.  Wow! A few years ago when we met the Comptons we could have said, “Party of four and a highchair please.” We hit it just right and got a huge table immediately.  Soon after the entire lobby was full of hungry people waiting.  It is always fun taking this many kids out to eat.   The daddies even took the 5 bigger ones out for a walk while we were waiting for food.  There might have been some snowball action going on.  Check out Jocelyn’s fabulous blog for shots of that action and why we won “Moms of The Year.”

Our boys had a blast pretending they were pirates and we only had to break up a few friendly sword fights.  First with forks…then with knives.   Coloring sheets make perfect pirate scopes.  They even shared some secrets and serious giggles.  They always can be found chatting away like old souls.  I love these sweet kids.  It is fun to see how boys with a pretty good age gap can be such good buddies.

For dinner we did some toddler meals hotel style.  Trader Joe’s organic microwave mac and cheese (quite the joke to make in the tiny little bowls I packed), apples, and whatever ever I could dig out of our healthy sized snack bag.  Dinner of champs for sure!

This kid is a serious appreciator of all things cozy.  He was loving our bed.  We stayed at The Lodge at Eagle Crest.  They have newly renovated rooms and we scored an awesome deal on Groupon and got both nights in a suite with a fireplace and kitchenette for $121!

My kids like to play, “Let’s touch EVERYTHING in the entire hotel room.”  After some Lysol wipe action we let them go at it.  Nothing more fun than exploring a new space.  I am still glad they have all their fingers.  We had a few close calls.

After dinner we went to visit my dear college friend Breanne and her twins (her hubby was out of town).  We had a blast catching up and hearing all about how life with twins has been for her.  Her girls are precious and I had fun reminiscing about what it was like to care for young twins.  She was telling about all the twins born to people who attended Western Oregon near the same time.  I knew of a few more and we are pretty sure we have hit on a very peculiar trend.  Whats the number we landed on Bre? I think you knew 7 couples?  In my circle I have had 2 girls in my wedding party, myself, and a college roommate who have all attended Western (a fairly small state college) and had twins.  That whole, “something in the water” thing…might really hold some water.

The next morning the twinners woke up at 6:00 after falling asleep at 10:30.  When you get back late and then realize you don’t have any bedding for the sleeper couch you call the front desk.  Then you wait for 35 minutes for bedding to arrive and then try to calm down kids from, “THE BEST DAY EVER!” Then it is magically 10:30.  That is how that works.  What do you do with twins who wake up at 6:00? Take them for a long run and out to breakfast.  Breanne and her family own and run the amazing One Street Down Cafe. If you are in the Redmond area you MUST go eat there for breakfast or lunch.

Daddy was super sweet and packed a game for the kids.  First time playing Sound Bingo.

We discussed that swimming might be an option after they saw their swim suits.  At this point the truth was than there was really no option.  There would be swimming. We figured the best strategy would be just go swimming first thing in the morning unless we wanted to hear about it every 3 minutes.  So in the dead of winter we put on their swim suits and more polar fleece over the top than you have ever seen.

This girl was so brave in the water. She jumped off the side eagerly and even got under the water and did not complain. It was so fun to see how relaxed she was and how much fun she was having.

Post swimming buddy shot.  These kids were drunk on fun and hardly noticed being soaking wet and under dressed for the walk out to the car.  Daddy went with the throw them in the car and run approach.  I chased Sweet Baby around the grassy area and hunted for airplanes while they swam.

During the afternoon I did some shopping at Old Mill while Hubs drove and the kids napped (not an easy coordination).  This scene at REI made me laugh.

We went to Pizza Mondo for dinner and got the “White Pizza” and added chicken. We agreed that it was probably the best pizza we have EVER eaten. Sadly we have no pictures of this thing of beauty.

For a special treat we had whole wheat double chocolate cookies and milk in bed together while watching part of a movie.  You can see how well that went over.  After this they went down like champs right at bed time.

On Monday Conrad took the twins for another early morning adventure and they fed the ducks AND a swan half a box of Trader Joe’s crackers.  Little Man said that the swan was “the boss and took all the crackers.” I asked about why Little Man was wearing shorts out and Hubs said, “Well I was just taking them in the van to get coffee and then we saw ducks.” Anybody with young children knows if you see ducks you stop…even if you are wearing shorts. Simple as that.

And this concludes this LONG post of our vacation.  I will leave you with the picture of this swan.  Swans are graceful. Adventures with children are not. But they are good. The hard stuff is often the good stuff. I love making memories with my four people.

*We also saw our awesome friends the Purscelley’s.  We went for a lovely windy walk on some awesome trails and played at the park.  We have kids similar ages and they are an amazing family.  Andy and Sara were even youth leaders of ours when Hubs and I were in high school.  We had intended on doing lunch, but ours were making it clear that cheese and crackers in the van would be a much better choice. Unfortunately we do not have pictures. But trust me, all our kids would have been so cute lined up.  The only problem is that it would have been virtually impossible to capture.